15 Minute Walk to Devils Gullet

A little further on and one reaches the plateau, visible proof of the last ice age when this area lay covered in ice. A dramatic raw beauty lies before you, a landscape of rocks and boulders, alpine flora and eucalypts growing harshly crippled in their fight for survival under the harshest of conditions: extremes of heat in summer and bitter cold in winter. Devils Gullet State Reserve is located in one of Tasmania’s ‘United Nations-recognised’ World Heritage Areas. Signposted clearly, a turnoff leads you off the main road a very short distance to the Devils Gullet car park, from where a short 15 minute, moderately easy alpine walk is needed to reach the viewing platform of Devils Gullet. Over 60% of alpine flora in this region is endemic to Tasmania. The walk to the platform is a delight in summer; the alpine flora attracts many insects and beautiful butterflies to the region, plants such as cushion plants (Donatia, Dracophyllum and Abrotanella spp.) and scoparia (Richea scoparia).

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Unique butterflies: Devils Gullet, Tasmania

In winter, while it can be bitterly cold (rug up, thermals needed!), it is equally as delightful. The beautiful Snow Gum puts on her best display, the rich colours of the bark providing a stark contrast against the whiteness of the snow. The bark of the snow gum is smooth and white to light grey or sometimes brown-red, shedding in patches or strips to give a mottled appearance. Rather than losing its leaves in winter/autumn, the tree adapts to the weight of snow by progressively bending its branches so that the outermost branches extend vertically down and snow is shed from the leaves. The Snow Gum is the most cold tolerant of all the eucalypt species, can withstand snow and ice, and prospers in well-drained soil and colder areas, but is also able to grow in the most diverse of areas, from shallow rocky soils in very exposed dry areas to wet snowy areas on high cliff tops.

The viewing platform of metal grille work overhangs a sheer cliff face over 220 metres high and provides magnificent 180° views of the Fisher River Valley, a gorge before you of sheer dolerite cliffs, carved out by ice and water moving off the plateau and down the valley, shaped by ice and rain over millions of years. This landscape has been evolving for about 200 million years, since long before Tasmania broke away from the great southern landmass called Gondwana. You will see forests before you; valleys and mountainous ranges. Directly across the valley you will see Clumner Bluff at 1559 metres, while in the distance to the west one sees the vista of Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, views to Mt. Ossa, Tasmania’s highest peak at 1617 metres which lies in the heart of the national park and many more mountain peaks across an area of over 100 000 hectares of Tasmania’s Central Plateau. An information board on the Devils Gullet Lookout will have you naming the mountains you see. The floor of the gullet shows the fragility of the dolerite cliffs, dolerite boulders litter the valley where the extremes of weather and erosion have had them falling from the cliffs over thousands of years. To stand on the platform on a stormy winter’s day, as the dolerite cliffs channel freezing southwesterly winds up into the gullet is truly an exhilarating experience. One truly feels how wild this wilderness really is!

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Viewing platform at Devils Gullet

Nunatak Peak

The end of the last glacial period was almost 20 000 years ago, when Tasmania was part of a great land mass known as Gondwanaland. Much of this island is composed of dolerite intrusions, (upwellings of magma, the molten or semi molten rock, that is found beneath the surface of the earth), through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the world’s largest areas of dolerite with many of our distinctive cliffs and peaks being formed of this rock type, including much of the Great Western Tiers, and also Cradle Mountain in the Central Plateau. Cradle Mountain is one of what is known as a nunatak peak, this dolerite capped peak was one of many formed during the ice age. A nunatak peak was left exposed to the harsh weather conditions above the ice, leaving them weathered and jagged looking, while those peaks buried beneath the ice look more smoothly rugged.

Comments relevant to this article are always most welcome, just leave a reply below. But first… please confirm the date of this article. Have you found something current, or is this ancient information? Either way, thanks for your company and come back again soon.

Related Posts

8 Comments

Roseann Howarth
on 29 June 2012 at 11:33 am

Aha! You have move East and South Carol, but you have yet to go a little further East and more North, then we shall meet!! Love the story on Devils Gullet and I had never heard of Nunatak peaks before – it certainly shows just how special Tasmania is doesn’t it? We seem to have so very much uniqueness for such a small heart of an island. But then again hearts are a requirement for life – wonder if Tasmania is the source of life for the planet – after all it is the only heart shaped island!!!

Well, hello again Roseann, lovely of you to stop by once more! I’m so happy to be educating you on aspects of our very unique state, and yes, I agree with your words re our unique little island 100%, maybe we are the ‘heart’ of this planet we call earth!!! mmmmm, a little further east eh?, maybe next week I’ll move closer, hahahaha…wishing you a wonderful week, and until next Friday, take care and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Carol

wow carol you have done it again ,i have lived here all my life (i am old) & thought they were just rocks & trees ,but not now i will look at them totally differently ,with much more respect & dignity they deserve, thank you for opening my eyes,really inspiring.peter c

Hello Peter…and thank you for stopping by once more. Oh yes, our precious earth deserves much respect and is very dignified (just rocks and trees???, oh my goodness!!!)…but as for you being old (mmmmm, wondering how old you call old???), well, have a rethink! Age is but a number in a timeline…compare your age to the number of years this little state of ours has been evolving…heh, heh, heh, YOU are not so old afterall eh???
Thanks for your lovely comments Peter, I sincerely appreciate them.
Carol

Hi Carol
Love these photos, looking forward to being up the Mersey Valley at the end of the month, me and my camera. Spent a lot of time up there with my father when I was but a youngster. He would have loved these photos. Keep up the good work, you have inspired me.
Regards, Helen

Hi Helen,
mmmm, the Mersey Valley a beautiful region, and YES, definitely take the camera! I go nowhere without mine, lol, but then, I’m addicted! Thanks so much for stopping by…and wishing you a magic time when you ‘hit the valley’.
Sincerely,
Carol

Thanks for your post. I’m wanting to show my class geographical wonders of Tasmania and looking into going here for a short visit. I’ll use this info as a base for my risk assessment and content info and hope it goes ahead.